Endeavor
by SilverPhoenixWings
Summary: Blind dates, Mind-reading, and Herbology


Endeavor

Endeavor

By: SilverPhoenixWings

_ _

A/N: Wow. Another story from me. I don't know how I come up with these plots. I haven't seen this anywhere, and its definitely not cliché. Um, this is during Lily and James' fifth year. As most of my stories, it will not be chaptered unless you people like it so much that you encourage me to do so. Hint hint.

I'll remind you of my policy- If you review my story, I'll review yours. And if you don't have an account, leave me your email and I'll thank you sincerely.

~~~

"I'm not going." Lily said with a "harrumph" as she flopped onto her bed. Her best friend Callie threw up her hands in frustration. Her other roommates, Amaya and Kristi, looked at Lily in disbelief.

"No way, no how, not possible." Callie said quickly, annunciating the last word. But she still sounded aggravated. "You _have_ to go, Lily." 

"Yeah, Lily. It won't be that bad." Amaya said, braiding her long black hair. 

"Come on, Lily, he's _hot_." Kristi said, giggling.

"Why do I have to go?" Lily said, daring someone to answer. Her red hair was messy from a pillow fight and she was desperately trying to get out of the date.

"Lily, It's a blind date. You aren't even supposed to know." Callie said.

"I do know."

"Why won't you go, Lily?" Kristi asked.

"Kris, you just want to hear all about James Potter!" Lily said with another "harrumph".

"Lily, come on. Why won't you go?" Amaya asked.

"Because." Lily said. Amaya looked as though an idea had clicked in her head.

"You won't go because you like him and you're afraid he won't like you back. Right?" she asked.

A simple non-existent answer from Lily confirmed her belief. 

"Lily, we wouldn't have set this up if he didn't like you." Callie said. Kristi nodded in agreement and fell back into reading her copy of _Teen Witch._

~~~

"Prongs! You can't back out. You don't even know her!" Sirius pleaded with his friend.

"Yeah James, she's really nice." Arthur Weasley said. 

"James, she'll like you, really." Frank Longbottom added.

"I'm not worried about that." James said.

"Sure." 

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah Right."

"Whatever guys, I don't have to go." James said.

"James, you've gotta." Remus Lupin spoke up. "We need her help for The Plan, remember?"

"Remus, what if she hates me? Then she won't help anyway." James asked.

"Ah ha! You admit it! You _are_ scared that she won't like you." Peter Pettigrew said. (A/N: I believe that Peter was as much a part of the Mauderers as anyone else. I mean they wouldn't have let them be their secret-keeper if they didn't trust him.)

"I did not!" James said, blushing.

"Prongs, you never worry about girls! Why are you worrying about Lily?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, if you don't want her, I do. She's the prettiest girl in our year." Arthur said.

"She is not." Remus protested, "Callie is."

That started a debate over girls, and ended with James finally agreeing to go. He would meet Lily at the Three Broomsticks, whilst the rest of the guys stayed at the castle.

~~~

Lily ended up going, after all. The other girls stayed behind under the pretense of an essay to complete. Lily walked into the Three Broomsticks at two in the afternoon. She spotted James sitting at a table in the corner and walked over.

"Hi." She said. He lifted his head from a piece of parchment he was poring over and smiled. He stuffed the parchment in his robes.

"Hi Lily." He said, standing up and pulling out a chair for her. He sat down at his original seat and waited for her to say something more. The two sat nervously for a few minutes, not saying much at all. "Lily, you don't want to be here, do you?" James asked. Lily sighed and amused herself with the napkin holder. 

"I'm sorry. I don't know what to say." Lily said. She looked up to see James staring at her. "What?" she asked laughing. James smiled and shook his head.

"Don't be sorry. I didn't really want to come here either." James said. Lily looked slightly hurt, but bounced back a minute later.

"Oh. No problem. Let's just get a butterbeer, okay?" She asked. James left the table to go get them butterbeers. When he returned, he started talking.

"Lily, the reason my friends set us up is simple. We need you. And your friends." James said in a business-like manner. Lily looked confused.

"Excuse me?"

"We need you."

"What for?"

"Our Plan." James said. When she still looked confused, he continued. "Lily, everyone knows you're the best at Charms. We need Callie for the Potion and Amaya for the Herbology part. And, Sirius has decided that Kristi should be involved just for fun."

"Why can't Remus do the Herbology part? He's good at Herbology…" Lily said, still quite confused.

"I'd better tell you the Plan, first." James laughed.

"Okay then." Lily said.

"We want to give all of the Slytherins a mind reading potion." 

"How does that involve Charms?" Lily asked.

"Well, that's totally different. I thought it word be funny if the only word they could say would be 'cheese'." James and Lily laughed. "I found a vocabulary-altering spell in the Restricted section, so that's all you have to do."

"Okay. And why do you need Amaya and Callie and Kristi?" Lily asked.

"Well, no one else can do the potions unless we let Arthur in. And Callie is way better than him at Potions anyway. And the plants we need to gather only bloom at a certain time." James said. Lily nodded.

"Full moon, right?" She whispered.

"How'd you know?" James asked, bewildered.

"James, I'm not dumb." She giggled.

"Okay then. You know all of it. If you don't help, I have to use a memory charm on you, and I'm hopeless at Charms." James laughed.

"Okay. I'll help you. But I need to check with the girls. And you never explained Kristi's part." Lily eyed him curiously.

"Moral support." James concluded.

~~~

Over the next week and a half, the Gryffindor fifth-year girls and the Mauderers worked together to create a mind-reading potion. Sirius took Amaya to collect the plants, and Lily and Callie tended to the potion. James stayed with Remus because Sirius could not. When the potion was finally ready, the eight (Remus was back by then) had a meeting in the common room.

"Okay. The potion is done." Callie reported.

"I've memorized the charm." Lily said happily.

"I remained useless during the whole thing!" Peter chirped in, making everyone laugh.

"Oh Peter, that's not true. You lent us your cauldron." Callie said, making everyone laugh harder.

"Well, I'm going to try to convince the House-elves to put this in the Slytherin pumpkin-juice. I need someone to come with me." James said.

"Lily will." Sirius and Amaya said at the same time. James sent a questioning glance to Lily. She shrugged her shoulders and they started off for the kitchens.

When they got to the painting, James tickled the pear. It turned into a handle, emitting them into the kitchens.

About twenty house-elves ran over to them. James asked to see one called "Largun" and sat down. Largun came over and bowed.

"Largun, we need a favor."

"Anything you be wanting, sir." The elf said bowing.

"We have some new candy we want to give the Slytherins. Its liquidated, and we're very sure they'll love it. Of course, they won't try it. Maybe if you could slip some into their Pumpkin-juice, they'll have an open mind."

"Of course! Of course! Do you have it with you?" Largun asked. James withdrew the bottle from his robes. "We be handling this sir and miss." 

~~~

The next morning, the eight sat at the house table waiting. Lily had enchanted the potion to make the drinker say only, "Cheese." Boiling with anticipation, Lily almost screamed when someone took the first sip. Immediately, a thought bubble appeared above their head. Lily looked at the drinker. Malfoy's goon Goyle. Not surprisingly, the bubble was blank. 

The group doubled over in laughter as, one by one, the Slytherins begin to drink the potion. Thought bubbles popped up, and conversations turned to Cheese. The group gave each other high-fives.

Currently, Lucius Malfoy punched Snape as he saw him thinking about Narcissa Fremont. All Snape could say in response was "Cheese!!!!" 

Lily laughed and made a mental note to remember that charm. She could just imagine Petunia only saying, "Cheese" forever. 

~~~

A/N: Okay, how was it? Again, I would like to dedicate this story to Prongsy, in high hopes that he gets better soon! 

~SilverPhoenixWings


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